Posted: July 18, 2012
Obama Campaign Files Federal Complaint Over Ohio Early Voting Law
President Obama's campaign, together with the Ohio and national democratic parties, filed a federal lawsuit yesterday over Ohio's early voting law. The complaint asserts that current Ohio law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and 42 U.S.C. 1983 because it permits in-person absentee voting in the three days immediately preceding Election Day for some voters but not for others. Specifically, the complaint states that voters using the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act can vote in the three days prior to an election but voters not using this Act cannot. The plaintiffs ask the court for an injunction prohibiting the state from enforcing current law, effectively restoring in-person absentee voting in the three days prior to an election for all Ohio voters. The case is Obama for America v. Husted.
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Commentary
Silence of the Lambs
Dale A. Oesterle
With the election of 2012 now well over and past the second inauguration of the incumbent President, the historical analysis of the events has begun and will last as long as written human history lasts. An interesting tidbit may already be lost to the majesty of the moment.
The voters of three very different states, Alaska, New Hampshire, and Ohio, all had an opportunity to call state constitutional conventions. In each state the voters turned the opportunity down by very similar votes, 68%, 64% and 68% respectively against.
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